HOLLYWOOD, CA - FEBRUARY 24: Actor Jack Nicholson along with First lady Michelle Obama seen on the video board present the Best Picture award onstage during the Oscars held at the Dolby Theatre on February 24, 2013 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)

Photo: Kevin Winter, Getty Images

HOLLYWOOD, CA - FEBRUARY 24: Actor Jack Nicholson along with First...

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Ang Lee wins best director.

Photo: Chris Pizzello, Associated Press

Ang Lee wins best director.

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HOLLYWOOD, CA - FEBRUARY 24: Actors Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence arrive at the Oscars held at Hollywood & Highland Center on February 24, 2013 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Christopher Polk/Getty Images)

Meryl Streep, left, presents the award for best actor in a leading role to Daniel Day-Lewis for "Lincoln" during the Oscars at the Dolby Theatre on Sunday, Feb. 24, 2013, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP)

Photo: Chris Pizzello, Associated Press

Meryl Streep, left, presents the award for best actor in a leading...

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Director/producer Ben Affleck accepts the award for best picture for "Argo" during the Oscars at the Dolby Theatre on Sunday Feb. 24, 2013, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP)

Photo: Chris Pizzello, Associated Press

Director/producer Ben Affleck accepts the award for best picture...

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Quentin Tarantino accepts the award for best original screenplay for "Django Unchained" during the Oscars at the Dolby Theatre on Sunday Feb. 24, 2013, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP)

Photo: Chris Pizzello, Associated Press

Quentin Tarantino accepts the award for best original screenplay...

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From second left, actors Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Seth MacFarlane and Daniel Radcliffe perform onstage during the Oscars at the Dolby Theatre on Sunday Feb. 24, 2013, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP)

Photo: Chris Pizzello, Associated Press

From second left, actors Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Seth MacFarlane and...

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Anne Hathaway accepts the award for best actress in a supporting role for "Les Miserables" during the Oscars at the Dolby Theatre on Sunday Feb. 24, 2013, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP)

Photo: Chris Pizzello, Associated Press

Anne Hathaway accepts the award for best actress in a supporting...

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Actress/singer Jennifer Hudson performs during the Oscars at the Dolby Theatre on Sunday Feb. 24, 2013, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP)

HOLLYWOOD, CA - FEBRUARY 24: Actress Charlize Theron and actor Channing Tatum dance onstage during the Oscars held at the Dolby Theatre on February 24, 2013 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)

It's a far better thing to have good movies and bad Oscars than the reverse. So no one need complain that some great movies weren't honored at Sunday night's presentation of the Academy Awards - though some of the academy's choices may go down as among the most peculiar in recent memory.

In a turn of events few anticipated a month ago - though by Sunday night it had seemed inevitable - "Argo" turned into the big winner at this year's Academy Awards, picking up the best picture among its three Oscars. First lady Michelle Obama, on a teleprompter from the White House, announced the honor.

Jennifer Lawrence won best actress for her charming performance as a young widow with redemptive qualities in "Silver Linings Playbook," in what has to be one of the most difficult-to-comprehend academy choices in recent years. She triumphed over competition that included Jessica Chastain in "Zero Dark Thirty" and 86-year-old Emmanuelle Riva in "Amour."

Much better was the choice of Daniel Day-Lewis, who won best actor for his extraordinary performance in "Lincoln." Day-Lewis' win, his third, was the closest thing to a shoo-in going into the night. He is the first actor to win three Oscars in the lead category. In accepting the award from last year's best actress winner, Meryl Streep, Day-Lewis made a funny remark, saying that he and Streep had done a "straight swap" three years earlier, that he had been originally intended to play Margaret Thatcher and she to play Abraham Lincoln. The swap worked out well for them both.

Picture-director split

This year saw a rare split between best picture and best director, if only because "Argo" director Ben Affleck wasn't nominated in the category. Instead the prize went to Ang Lee for the visually rich but dramatically inert "Life of Pi," which picked up four Oscars. Steven Spielberg, who directed "Lincoln," had gone into the evening as the perceived front-runner.

Christoph Waltz, who dominated Quentin Tarantino's "Django Unchained," won his second best supporting actor award - his previous Oscar was for his performance in another Tarantino film, "Inglourious Basterds."

Anne Hathaway, as expected, won best supporting actress for her performance in "Les Misérables," one for which she lost weight, cut her hair and sang-sobbed "I Dreamed a Dream" into a camera over and over, until just the right balance between singing and sobbing had been achieved.

Momentum for 'Argo'

The first clear sign that things were going in an "Argo" direction came when it won best editing. By the time it won best adapted screenplay, the handwriting was on the wall. That Oscar had seemed "Lincoln" screenwriter Tony Kushner's for the taking. On a happier note, Tarantino won a much deserved best original screenplay award for "Django Unchained." He thanked his actors and talked about how he hoped his work would be remembered 30 and 50 years from today. That's probably a safe bet.

Foreign film, no surprise, went to that unimpeachable provocation, "Amour," by the always challenging and sometimes mischievous Austrian director Michael Haneke. The Scottish adventure "Brave," from Disney's Pixar animation unit, was named best animated feature. Pixar films have won seven of the 12 Oscars since the category was added.

In addition to best director, "Life of Pi" won Oscars for cinematography, original score and remarkable visual effects. "Anna Karenina" won the one award it clearly deserved, for costume design. "Les Misérables" won best makeup - remember all that rotting teeth? Pure artifice.

Seth MacFarlane turned out to be a respectable Oscar host, anarchic and occasionally quite funny, and yet urbane in a way that somehow feels necessary for this show. But he was probably not to everyone's taste. Surely everyone will agree, however, that among the night's highlights was the song "Goldfinger," as sung by its originator, Shirley Bassey. It came in the midst of a tribute to James Bond's 50 years as a franchise. Bassey, at 76, still has the pipes and brought down the house. She received a standing ovation, the first of the night and probably the most sincere.

Sad day for academy

Before we say goodbye to Sunday night's ceremony, it really should be said that this was a sad day for the academy. Instead of giving best picture to "Lincoln," a masterpiece, or to the innovative "Zero Dark Thirty," or the audacious and inspired "Django Unchained," the academy went back to its old ways and honored something good but unremarkable, Ben Affleck's third-best film, "Argo." Instead of awarding best actress to Emmanuelle Riva for her searing work in "Amour" or Jessica Chastain for her nuanced, pressure-cooker performance in "Zero Dark Thirty," it gave the prize to pretty, charming Jennifer Lawrence - for being pretty and charming in "Silver Linings Playbook." And instead of giving best supporting actress to Sally Field or Helen Hunt, who gave performances in complicated roles, in which they had to interact with other actors, the academy honored Anne Hathaway, for singing a song into a camera.

These are more than you-say-potato-I-say potahto expressions of preference. As much as one can tell the day after, these are mistakes people will look at for years to come, embarrassments to history. Together they made Sunday night's Oscars one of the more interesting in recent years, but a little painful to witness.